This is my proposed theoretical resolution to the case of Haneda Kouji, one of the greatest mysteries in the series that is involved with several unknown identities at present.

First off, Kouji met with Amanda and Asaka to have a chat in Kouji's room about some random topics. Asaka is originally Amanda's bodyguard, because, Amanda had acquaintances with the FBI and the CIA, so protection was necessary. She hired Asaka at one point from the past and nobody knew Asaka's background. I guess Asaka was a secret agent from some organization back then, with unknown whereabouts. In the conversation, Amanda ordered room service, like sweets and tea to Kouji's room. Rum was outside, observing the situation and waiting for a chance to kill all three.

Second, after the conversation, Amanda was tired so she went back to her room to rest. Asaka was with Kouji, maybe talking about the Shogi tournament the next day, and some security stories regarding Amanda that Asaka was concerned about. When Amanda went to her room, Rum, previously snuck into her room, ambushed Amanda, forced her with APTX and killed her easily. That explains why Amanda's room was clean. Rum had to act quickly, since there were 2 other alive, Asaka and Amanda, to clear up all evidences. Right when Asaka opened Kouji's room and went back to Amanda's room, Rum pushed Asaka in the room, kicked shut the door and knocked out Asaka. Seeing Kouji panicked and about to call the reception, he left Asaka unconscious there, and went ahead to subdue Kouji. Kouji managed to put up some fight with Rum (defensive wounds on his arms), but was soon overwhelmed. In the end, Rum managed to force Kouji to swallow APTX. Just when Kouji was about to die, Asaka launched a counterattack on Rum, injuring him somewhat. Rum fought Asaka and now Kouji's room turned into a huge mess, with broken objects like crockery, plates and cups. Asaka was again, overwhelmed by Rum. Just when Asaka was about to be forced to swallow APTX, Rum heard the sounds of people from neighboring rooms come back after dinner or something. (The incident happened with no witnesses, neighboring hotel residents all went out for dinner, etc so Rum took advantage of the situation to act). Asaka was still resisting and so it was too late for Rum to kill Asaka. Fearing that Amanda's death might be exposed soon enough, Rum knocked down Asaka unconscious again and fled the scene, with the thought that Asaka would be framed for killing Kouji and Amanda. Kouji still had his last breathe to go into the bathroom, filled the sink with water to cut the mirror, craft the dying message, PUT ON MASCARA, and finally died. Asaka regained consciousness, fled the scene aftera while, but people knew that Asaka fled (on the website by the uploader of the case, it says that people hear Amanda call out the name "Asaka"), but they didn't know Rum or any suspicious person fled before Asaka. In the process, Asaka took the U shard from the dying message Kouji made with a pair of scissors, but became the prime suspect for both murders.

Facts and evidences we have about this case: *Dying message, correctly deciphered as ASACA Rum. *The U shard is missing from "PTON MASCARA" part*Tap water was left running in Kouji's room*Kouji's room was very messy while Amanda's was very tidy: Crockery, broken hand-mirror, cups and plates smashed to pieces in Kouji's room.*Amanda met with Kouji to have a chat, before she was killed*Defensive wounds were found on Kouji's arms*Gaito Hotta believes Asaka is female and Asaka was seen holding the hand-mirror. *Kouji ended up with the hand-mirror to craft the dying message. *There was a person who kept uploading the case online when the case was taken down every time*Bruise on Kouji's palm when he held the scissors tightly*Unknown object in the middle of Kouji's right palm*Asaka's hiring was done in secret. No one close to Amanda knew how Asaka was hired. *Tsutomu's body was never found and he was missing still.

So that's how I recontructed the Kouji case. To answer some questions, here are my thoughts:I think Tsutomu Akai (missing) was an investigator of the case after it happened, and so his investigation caught BO (Black Organization)'s attention, and went missing afterwards. Asaka is in fact Wakasa Rumi, who is still keeping the U shard, and the missing bodyguard from 17 years ago. Asaka picture seems to fit Rumi (slim figure) and 17 years ago, Rumi was 20. I believe in Hotta's statement as well. Since Rumi was a secret agent (follow up from the thought above), she could pretend to look older back then, for Amanda to hire her. But 20 looks fitting to the picture of Asaka back then. As for who Rum is, I think Rum hasn't appeared in person before. I don't think Kouji knows Rum, so, his dying message most likely meant to point to Rumi (died before creating the letter "I") You might say, that a dying message of the victim always points to the culprit, exposing them. But since Kouji didn't even know Rum at all (not to mention Rum could have put on a disguise in the murder), he could only help the police's investigation by directing it to Asaka, the survivor of the case (I think he saw Rumi alive, but unable to move temporarily due to Rum's beatings).

I tried my best to simplify this big mystery, so I could be so wrong and the case could've been much more complicated than what I think. Feel free to give your opinions. Thanks for reading!

To be honest: if it turns out somewhat (as simple) like this, then I would be disappointed. I am really hoping for some crazy, mind-blowing case we all can't conclude right now (because lack of information). Also I don't get your point with "died before creating the letter "I"". I mean how would he have planned to create that? And we don't know if Rumi Wakasa is using her real name right now (assumption, no offense please). But a really good summary of clues and evidences we have right now. I respect the effort.

The thing is why Would Kohji name Wakasa Rumi in is dying message? It's very counterproductive as it'll incriminate Rumi even more. Now the issue with glass shard, if that was the case Rumi great fall on her butt would have been a bloody incident.To even think a logical person like Rumi is romaing around with a glass shard in her pocket. Also the dimension of the glass shard would be much smaller than the object in Rumi's pocket.

Also the another question remains who took away the Shogi piece?

And on a separate note, why Akai thought of joining FBI but not the organization in which Papakai worked? If it was CIA then it would have been an easy choice(As akai is already in FBI and their hiring procedure is more or less same.) So maybe Papakai was a member of such an organization which Shuichi had no chance of joining?(Like NPA/PSB as they prefer Japanese born nationals and is more strict and FBI/CIA)

K.O.R.N wrote: Asaka is originally Amanda's bodyguard, because, Amanda had acquaintances with the FBI and the CIA, so protection was necessary.

What do you mean by that? Is having connections in FBI or CIA dangerous? If it was her family I understand since some people could hold a grudge against her family and because of that target her. But nothing was said about that. Also I agree with the fact that keeping a glass shard in your pocket could be very painful. Still the thing she keeps in her pocket is a bit misterious. Does she carry it with herself all the time? That would mean it's very important to her. In this case why would she keep it in her pocket? Not in a safer place like her bag? Or did she just carry it with her coincidentally? (Although it's doubtful because Gosho wouldn't have Conan mention something so not important.)But of course I think your theory has good points too

Zerozaki4869 wrote:The thing is why Would Kohji name Wakasa Rumi in is dying message? It's very counterproductive as it'll incriminate Rumi even more. Now the issue with glass shard, if that was the case Rumi great fall on her butt would have been a bloody incident.To even think a logical person like Rumi is romaing around with a glass shard in her pocket. Also the dimension of the glass shard would be much smaller than the object in Rumi's pocket.

Also the another question remains who took away the Shogi piece?

And on a separate note, why Akai thought of joining FBI but not the organization in which Papakai worked? If it was CIA then it would have been an easy choice(As akai is already in FBI and their hiring procedure is more or less same.) So maybe Papakai was a member of such an organization which Shuichi had no chance of joining?(Like NPA/PSB as they prefer Japanese born nationals and is more strict and FBI/CIA)

I think Rumi keeps the shard but that doesn't mean that she carries it with her all the time. About the Shogi piece, I think Tsutomu did. He probably came to the scene along with the investigation squad, or by himself, for some unknown reasons, then collected the shogi piece, or the unknown object that caused a bruise in Kouji's palm. About the dying message of Kouji, another possibility is a real name of an important person is mentioned but doesn't point to Rumi. I am not sure on this account, about how Kouji could possibly know Rum in the first place. I don't think Rum is naive enough to go kill an influential person like Amanda without some disguise of some sorts at least. The 2nd-in-command should be careful in action, as expected. I think, his plan just didn't go well because of Asaka.

ShadowNeo wrote:To be honest: if it turns out somewhat (as simple) like this, then I would be disappointed. I am really hoping for some crazy, mind-blowing case we all can't conclude right now (because lack of information). Also I don't get your point with "died before creating the letter "I"". I mean how would he have planned to create that? And we don't know if Rumi Wakasa is using her real name right now (assumption, no offense please). But a really good summary of clues and evidences we have right now. I respect the effort.

Thanks for reading. Yeah, this looks like a simple scenario indeed. No doubt about it. And yes, I'm very sure Wakasa Rumi is not the real name, but that's my opinion only. I am quite certain that Kouji didn't know who Rum was, and his dying message most likely is connected through Shogi, his expertise. The dying message, most definitely has a purpose and it can't be a wrong purpose here. So if he doesn't know who Rum is, it could only point to someone he knew. Not to mention at the time before his death, it was hard to imagine he had much time to craft a dying message while thinking of which person to point to, that didn't incriminate the culprit while not exposing Asaka, or Rumi, in my theory. Since Rum is not known, Kouji can't just have put down a message that can randomly be deciphered as Rum in here. According to your point, it could only make sense then, that Rumi's real name is mentioned in Kouji's dying message. Something like that.

Detective Magic wrote: What do you mean by that? Is having connections in FBI or CIA dangerous? If it was her family I understand since some people could hold a grudge against her family and because of that target her. But nothing was said about that. Also I agree with the fact that keeping a glass shard in your pocket could be very painful. Still the thing she keeps in her pocket is a bit misterious. Does she carry it with herself all the time? That would mean it's very important to her. In this case why would she keep it in her pocket? Not in a safer place like her bag? Or did she just carry it with her coincidentally? (Although it's doubtful because Gosho wouldn't have Conan mention something so not important.)But of course I think your theory has good points too

I mean, Amanda probably had something to do with BO in the past, an ex-spy or someone like that, which we don't know right now, so it's just pure speculation on Amanda's whereabouts in the past. So she became a target for elimination and she needed a bodyguard to protect her. As I said above, I don't think she carries it with her all the time at all. As of the object in her pocket, I'm not quite decided on which item, so, I will share my thoughts later. Thanks for reading though!

Good points/ideas/speculations.So what's the plan/idea about bringing the item, if she doesn't bring it all the time, to this certain case?I would assume that she wanted to maybe show it to Conan, but in the end she couldn't because someone died and/or Kuroda appeared? My opinion.

ShadowNeo wrote:Good points/ideas/speculations.So what's the plan/idea about bringing the item, if she doesn't bring it all the time, to this certain case?I would assume that she wanted to maybe show it to Conan, but in the end she couldn't because someone died and/or Kuroda appeared? My opinion.

I don't know for sure, maybe she somehow knew that someone would follow her, after she appeared on the newspaper? Or exposition/plot, but I don't have a strong argument for this.